Collectivism Reconsidered  

I When one glances through the writings of our modern, hard-headed, non-utopian sociologists—students of industrial organization, of “labor relations,” of the corporation and its managerial structure—one notices a strain of controlled optimism in their otherwise businesslike and down-to-earth findings. Much …



The Post-McCarthy Atmosphere  

During the past few months ex-Senator Harry Cain has defended the Fifth Amendment; a Senate Committee has expressed doubts about the workings of the Attorney General’s “Subversive List”; the State Department, in an orgy of issuing passports as an aftermath …





Polio: The Blessings of … ?  

Sometimes cant harms no one but those who speak it; sometimes, as the wretched mishandling of the polio problem by the Eisenhower administration shows, it can endanger thousands of people. No one who remembers the hopes of April 12 when …





Co-Existence, Neutralism, Third Force  

I This comment on the international situation and plea that politically conscious Americans, especially non-Stalinists, should give more support to the development of a Third Camp starts with several assumptions. I shall not attempt to argue their validity, save in …



Proudhon, An Appreciation  

The extent to which Proudhon’s contributions to radical thought are overlooked even among radicals was impressed upon me by a recent article in DISSENT (Spring, 1954) in which Lewis Coser and Irving Howe discussed the differences between Marx and his …



The Folklore of Populism  

I. The Two Nations For a generation after the Civil War, a time of great economic exploitation and waste, grave social corruption and ugliness, the dominant note in American political life was complacency. Although dissenting minorities were always present, they …



Letters  

Editors: Since you have been good enough to announce the publication (in an abbreviated form) of a recent paper of mine on collectivism (see page 305) , I hesitate to take up more of your space, but the discussion of …



A Sampling of Opinions  

This book, says the author, was designed to “open a window into the mind of America” and perhaps it has succeeded even better than Mr. Stouffer had intended because, in a way, its motivation and conception, its mode of procedure …



Work in Progress  

G. D. H. Cole has undertaken the exceptionally difficult task of preparing a general history of socialist thought as distinguished from a history of the socialist movement. This work, to run to four volumes when complete, is presently at the …





The Domestic Temper  

THE VERY SUMMER which finds the Russian and American governments drawing closer together seems also to find the Russian and American people approximating one another, so far as one can tell, in the quality of their mood. Both give the …





Matusow: Boomerang Boy  

Unless man is to drop to all fours, backbones roundabout need a bit of stiffening. In some measure, perhaps, this generally seedy book (FALSE WITNESS, by Harvey Matusow. New York: Cameron & Kahn. 255 pp. Cloth $3. Paper $1.25) written …